The Sharpest Sword of All
by Aquariuspower
Summary: A fight against Dagur occurs, and Hiccup proves himself to be a better swordfighter than what his friends all thought. The other riders, Astrid in particular, wonder why he never shows that skill. HiccupxAstrid


**The sharpest sword of all**

 **A fight against Dagur and Ryker occurs, and Hiccup proves himself to be a better swordfighter than what his friends all thought. The other riders wonder why he never shows that skill. HiccupxAstrid**

 **That one was kind of stuck in my head for a while, I was writing it from time to time between two other stories. I know that in the book, Hiccup is a skilled swordfighter, it's sad it's rarely showed in the movies and the serie. But well, I guess not everything can be perfect. I hope you'll enjoy this one.**

It all started when Dagur and Ryker tried to ambush the dragons' riders again. The teens were used to that kind of attack and promptly countered it, if the dragon hunters thought they would meet an easy match they were peroved wrong quickly. The twins and Snotlout were making explosions and it was obvious that they were having fun in spite of the danger. Fishlegs and Astrid were shooting the cages in which some dragons were imprisoned to free them. Hiccup was mostly attacking Dagur in order to distract the crazy Viking from shooting his friends.

"Your shooting skills are still really bad Dagur!"

"We will see that, Brother!"

Another one of Dagur's arrow missed him, Toothless fired at him in retaliation and would have got him if Dagur hadn't thrown himself on the side to save himself. Years ago, the idea of killing repulsed Hiccup and his friends, but with years, their eyes had opened to reality: they were Vikings, they would have to kill one day. They already killed in fact, not directly, but they were no fools they knew that when they fired boats and made explosions their enemies were hurt or killed. They had already caused death, just not by their blade but through their dragons. If killing Dagur was necessary, Hiccup would do it.

The Berserker chief rolled to the side to avoid the fire, and Hiccup was about to shoot their mast when suddenly, an arrow was planted in Toothless paw. The dragon roared and fell on the ship; Hiccup barely had the time to jump off his back and fell properly to avoid his right leg being crushed under Toothless's weight as the dragon landed on the side. His shield fell away from him. He ignored the pain in his body as he realized he was on the enemy's ship with Toothless paralyzed!

Dagur yelled like crazy with his axe raised in the air and Hiccup just had time to draw out his sword and deflected his axe's blow before he could actually maim his friend. He aimed for his opponent's shoulder but the Berserker countered and sent his axe toward Hiccup's chest, who deflected it again, and Dagur leaped backward to avoid the next blow to his flank.

"Here you are, Hiccup! In my claws! No need for a fight, surrender already!"

"Don't think you'll touch him!"

With that he lunged toward Dagur to meet his axe in a violent blow, parry it, then Hiccup aimed the weapon at his head. Dagur hardly had time to block it and while the Berserker's arm was raised, Hiccup took opportunity to kick him in the stomach, making him back away and bend over slightly. With a turn on his sword, Hiccup aimed at his head and he would have probably killed Dagur if one of his men hadn't pushed him away by surprise. Hiccup turned round in time to block a blow of the man's axe. The man went to hit again but one swing of his sword close to his fingers was enough to disarm him. Hiccup swirled his sword and planted it in the man's throat, half-cutting his head.

The body fell with a loud 'thump' and Hiccup immediately went back at Toothless's side, only to be attacked by Dagur again. He parried and swirled his sword, aiming at Dagur's shoulder again to incapacitate him. It was blocked just in time.

"Blood on your sword! Who would have thought, brother?!"

Dagur pushed him away and throw his fist at his cheek, making Hiccup dizzy for a second and he had to leap away in order to avoid his head being cut in half. He parried again the next blow and attacked. Their blades meet several times like this, Dagur had more strength but Hiccup was swifter and more precise. The young Hooligan threw his elbow at Dagur's jaw when the older man blocked his sword while trying to corner him. Hiccup was about to attack again when suddenly, he felt his feet being lifted in the air and claws around shoulders. The ship was getting farer and farer beneath him and he saw it was Barf and Belch who were holding him, while Hookfang was holding Toothless in his paws.

"We got you in time, Hicc!" Ruffnutt exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, thank you guys! Are you okay, Toothless?"

The dragon gave a weak growl, but he didn't seem wounded. Hiccup felt proud that he succeeded to protect his dragon, even though he didn't spare him the arrow, he avoided him worse. Astrid came at his side and let him mount behind her on Stormfly. They would heal the Night Fury properly back on their island.

"We didn't see immediately you were in danger," she said. "Don't worry for Toothless, he'll be fine."

"Thank you."

He seized the occasion to hug her from behind, things weren't always clear between them, but recently, they had more affectionate gestures. Astrid gave him a little smile. He almost never stopped looking at Toothless while the dragon was regaining his senses.

When they were finally back on their island, they healed Toothless who recovered quickly enough from the poison. Hiccup was only reassured when he saw his dragon moving and walking normally.

"At least he is fine now."

"Yeah, Ryker's men can't say the same," Ruffnutt declared while looking at Hiccup.

"I can't believe you actually fought and stabbed that guy," Tuffnutt said. "We saw that, it was pretty awesome! And…Gory."

"Please, it's not the first time people die during one of our fights."

"Yeah but we generally don't stab them ourselves," Astrid countered.

"What, are you going to reproach me what I did? What would you have done?"

"I would have done the same, it's just that we didn't know you had it in you to fight and win like this," Snotlout explained.

"Yeah, with your sword and not your dragon," Tuffnutt concluded.

"So that's what you're surprised about, that I can fight?"

They all nodded except Astrid; She was the one he used to train with, so she knew he was good with a sword, it wasn't so much of a surprise for her. However she knew the rest of the group thought Hiccup was only wits and nothing else. It wasn't a bad thing they discovered the truth.

"Why did you never tell us you could be so good at it?" Fishlegs asked.

"Well, no one asked me this morning 'hey Hiccup, how are you doing with a sword by the way?'"

"No one ask me how awesome I am and yet you all know."

"Yes Snotlout, we surely know," Astrid said sarcastically.

The twins made fun of Snotlout, while Fishlegs turned to his friend again.

"I mean it, why do you never show that a little more? As a future chief, it would be important."

"We always fight on dragon's back, I don't know much of what you're able to do either."

Hiccup just stood up and brought Toothless to their hut and let the dragon rest here. He kneeled at his side and Toothless put his head on his lap, letting his friend pet him.

"It was surely a big day, wasn't it? I'm glad I could protect you. I just killed my first man, my dad used to say it was one of the steps to become a man. Oh and killing a dragon, but that was before. And we already did that when we killed the Red Death I guess."

Toothless was already falling asleep, lulled by his rider's gentle voice. Hiccup continued to pet him when he heard someone enter. He saw Astrid standing there and he smiled to her. He gently put Toothless's head on the ground and got out silently, to let his friend rest. He closed the door, leaving the dragon inside alone.

"How are you feeling? I mean, it's the first time you kill someone yourself," Astrid asked.

"Not that bad, I mean…It's a strange feeling, I'm not feeling guilty, that guy would have killed me and Toothless. However, it makes me discover another part of myself."

"The others also did see another side of you. It's true you never show them your fighting skills, only with me and because you have to spare with someone."

"I don't know, I just don't want to show off I guess, we have enough of Snotlout doing that."

Astrid gave him a slight frown, showing she wouldn't buy it. She sat down on the ground, silently letting him know she wouldn't drop the subject and leave. Hiccup smiled and looked in her blue eyes, he sat beside her.

"I just don't want to be seen as a physical fighter. I know that for years I wanted to be recognized as such, and even today, when people call me scrawny, I don't particularly like it but…it's me. Being smart is a much more effective weapon, and I want to rely on that mainly. What I did, what I owe, it's thanks to my wits, not to physical strength. Years ago, I wanted to be like any other Vikings, but I realized after Toothless that I was fine being me."

"I'm glad to hear that."

She put an arm around his shoulder and he passed his around her waist. She was happy because she knew Hiccup used to lack confidence, yet over the years it changed as Hiccup had grown stronger and braver, hearing him say he was happy being himself was definitely a victory. Yet it seemed like he still had some little issues to work on.

"You know, no one would think you're less smart or less yourself if you show what you can do in a physical fight. After all, why should one has to choose between physical strength and intelligence, it's possible to have both. On contrary hiding your talents would just end up with you denying who you are."

He seemed thoughtful when he heard those words. Indeed, he had always seen Astrid was strong with weapons, yet he never considered her as an idiot, she had showed herself witty and smart more than once. Maybe he was a little more like Astrid than what he thought. Maybe it was for the best, to have things in common with her. She went on:

"I understand what you feel. You know, when you made me fly for the first time, it was truly amazing, but I felt also doubts, because I couldn't help but think I shouldn't enjoy this. I mean riding on a dragon was certainly not a Viking thing. But I couldn't help it, and I decided not to lie to myself."

"You never told me that."

"I know…I didn't want to appear less confident I think."

"Believe me Astrid, I hardly saw someone as confident as you."

She smiled at this and gave him a kiss on the lips.

"And believe me no one is like you, it would be impossible I think to find someone else like you, whether your strong with a sword or not. You'll always be the Viking who conquered the sky."

He brought her closer and this time it was him who kissed her. She got out of his hold and stood up before taking her axe.

"Let's play a game: I'll let you kiss me as much as you want this evening if you can beat me at training."

Hiccup took out his sword. He was surely ready to show his skill for such a challenge. No need to say everyone was stunned when they saw Hiccup kissing Astrid at least a dozen of time this evening without her protesting.

 **Here, just a little one-shot with some HiccupxAstrid. I just love them together ^^ Don't hesitate to tell me what you think, especially for that one it was also quite an exercise for writing sword fight scenes, I'm still feeling clumsy at it.**


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